Funcom lays off more developers supporting Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles.

CEO Rui Casais is leaving the company at the end of the year.

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Funcom, the developer of Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles, has announced a restructuring process that will result in layoffs, with current CEO Rui Casais leaving Funcom once the reorganization is complete.

The decision comes after a change of direction at Funcom whereby the studio will focus entirely on supporting its existing RPG titles. In a statement (via GamesIndustry.biz), Casais said that Dune: Awakening is "the largest project we've ever undertaken and will require several years of significant development resources at our studios". "Moving from full production to long-term post-launch development and operations requires a different organization," he continued.

"While we wanted everyone who helped build Dune: Awakening to continue with us, we cannot maintain the size and structure needed during peak development as we move into the next phase. My focus right now is to ensure that this process is as supportive as possible of everyone affected and to treat our colleagues with the respect and transparency they deserve."

Dune: Awakening was a huge hit for Funcom when it released in June of last year, with the survival MMO shifting a million copies in two weeks to become the Norwegian developer's fastest-selling game in history. Despite this initial success, it is more difficult to assess the game's long-term performance.

Dune: Awakening - Console and Single Player Launch Trailer - YouTube

In the months following release, Awakening's player count dropped significantly, and the game's PvP elements and faction-based endgame received mixed reactions from the community. Funcom implemented a move away from layoffs last October, while last month the studio revamped Dune: Awakening to move away from its MMO elements and add both solo and PvE game modes (though the game still supports more competitive multiplayer).

Dune Awakening now has a solo mode for players plagued by their MMO tendencies, while Funcom has adjusted progression so you no longer have to miss things.

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In addition to the changes to Awakening, Funcom's other survival game Conan Exiles also received a significant upgrade this year, receiving a new engine, a large paid expansion version, and an "enhanced endowment slider" for the genitalia of sexier player characters.

Now that both of these remakes are complete, it looks like Funcom's plan is to rest on its games for the foreseeable future. Speaking to GamesIndustry last month, Funcom creative director Joel Baylos said the studio was "not ready to start a new game" and that any plans for future projects had become "silly thoughts in the back of our minds."

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Funcom did not share the number of employees affected by the layoffs. But in a press release, the company said the restructuring is "beginning now" and would not share additional details until the process is complete "out of respect for the employees involved." Once the reorganization is complete, Rui Casais will be succeeded by Scott Junior, Funcom's senior product manager and executive producer on Dune Awakening.

Rick has been fascinated with PC games since he was seven years old, when he would go to his father's home office for secret Doom sessions. He grew up on a diet of similarly inappropriate games, with favorites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was the gaming editor for Custom PC magazine and the associated website. But he's always kept one foot in free games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, The Guardian and, of course, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he's particularly interested in first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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